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Stream Bruno Mars' Excellent Unorthodox Jukebox Album, Out Now!

Bruno Mars can sing like nobody's business. His second album, the aptly-titled Unorthodox Jukebox highlights this fact times a trillion.

The way his voice blends right in with swooping strings or how an ecstatic howl can simultaneously suggest a plaintive plea. Bruno's voice is an instrument of great power and beauty. In "Young Girls," it adds more tension to an already-tense song about addiction, with "young girls" symbolizing a greater metaphor for a host of pitfalls young stars experience on their rise to the top. "All these roads steer me wrong," Bruno sings. "But I still drive them all night long." My heart just broke a little.

This kind of singing gives Bruno a bit more personality. On his mega-smash 2010 debut, Doo-Wops and Hooligans, he sang with the kind of skill and control that suggested he'd been studying up on the great soul singers before him. Nothing wrong with that, but the songs painted him as a hopelessly romantic, grenade-catching do-gooder. For me, it was a bit vanilla.

Unorthodox Jukebox finds Bruno upping his game to more treacherous terrain: addictions, regrets, and strip clubs all make the cut. The album also does quite a bit of genre-hopping with unnatural ease: "If I Knew" cops a Temptations-esque strut, while "Show Me" and single "Locked Out of Heaven" glide on the strength of spacey dancehall grooves. Video to the latter, below!

Believe it or not, this album, though it runs through an entire handbook of genre-and-edgy-topic exploration and soul tropes, is pretty solid. Clocking in at 35 minutes, the album's 10 songs are tightly constructed and hookier than Bruno's past material. It's hard to pick a favorite, but I enjoy "Natalie" quite a bit. It starts out all minor-key mysterious, but by the time the chorus hits, it's four-to-the-floor gospel-pop hysteria a la Michael Jackson.

I suggest not avoiding Unorthodox Jukebox (not like you'll be able to, anyway). Listen to the album stream here!

What do y'all think of Bruno Mars' new music, darlings? Let me know what your favorite track from the stream is, if you like it!